Hosted UC: Aiming at the SMBs

"Recent initiatives from vendors and service providers to bring enterprise hosted UC solutions to the SMB community are enabling small businesses to be more agile and more competitive  although what they have done is not new to enterprise companies. Siemens, Shell Oil, Intel and many other large corporations do almost exactly what these hosted providers are now doing, but those technologies have been way out of reach of small businesses because of limited budgets or limited technical capabilities," writes William Bumbernick, CEO of hosted VoIP and UC services provider Alteva.

"There are a variety of vendors that offer different types of hosted UC applications allowing companies to reap the benefits of a new integrated and collaborative product. Small businesses can now reduce travel expenses by replacing in-person meetings with immersive Web, video, and audio conferencing. 'At the same time, more than 85 percent of companies are increasing the number of telecommuters,' according to a white paper written by Irwin Lazar of Nemertes Research titled, Roadmap to UC Products that Reap Rewards. By freeing employees from fixed desks or offices, and increasing occupancy density in buildings, organizations can lower real estate and facility costs." Bumbernick writes.